broadband dongles

Chr15_2

I've bought my new notepad and now need a broadband dongle for the weekend to take away with me. In reality I wont use it a huge amount for internet so dont want to commit to a monthly fee, and was told a while ago about one that rolls over. trouble is after doing some searching I can't find one that does that they all seem to last 30 days.

Can anyone give me some advice please?

PasturesNew

O2 does it by the day. £2/day and I think £7/week.
Vodaphone I believe rolls the credit forward so you can use it at a future date
Three seem to be offering some daily tariffs too now.

Update: Three is £2/day, but it's until midnight the day after you buy it ... so buy it at the right time and it's like 2 days.

Pay Per Day Mobile Broadband
If you only use Mobile Broadband now and then, you can buy Pay Per Day Mobile Broadband. For just £2 per top-up, you’ll get a 500MB data allowance, which could let you send around 5,000 emails and browse online for 5 hours.

Your data allowance will last until midnight the day after you buy it, if you haven’t used it up before.

If you have a dongle or a MiFi device, you’ll get a text alert sent to your dashboard telling you that you’ve nearly used up your data allowance. If you’ve got an iPad, we can’t send you an alert right now, so check My3 where we’ll keep you updated.

Once you’ve used up all your data, we’ll automatically re-direct you to My3 where you can buy another top-up if you need it.

Update 2: Looks like there's some shifty small print

The minimum top-up voucher you can buy in one of our 3Stores is £10. You can use this to buy the £2 top-up from My3. The remaining balance of £8 will stay on your account. You could use it to buy four more day passes, or, convert the whole £10 voucher, which will last five days.

O2 is a simple £2/day, without the voucher nonsense. Just pay online your £2.

ManAtHome

O2 contracts start from £5 a month (500MB) plus £10 for the dongle http://shop.o2.co.uk/promo/o2mobilebroadband/tab/1_month - likely to be cheaper than PAYG, and it's a rolling 1 month contract so no major tie-in. With this, you also get free access to some WiFi hotspots (The Cloud and Openzone), and can get a discount on O2 home broadband.

Chr15_2

Hi thanks for the replies and info.

I must admit I thought it would be simple, like buying a PAYG mobile.I buy the dongle, put £10 on it and when it's ended top up again. Guess not!

I was hoping that say if I go on holiday I can chuck on a load of money and take it with me, without paying per day and having to find
Will look at the O2 deal I think

culpepper

maplins have some that already have credit on. They are '3' dongles . I think they had 2 different ones. You use them till they are empty of credit and then top up when/if you want to use them again I believe

Chr15_2

culpepper wrote: »

maplins have some that already have credit on. They are '3' dongles . I think they had 2 different ones. You use them till they are empty of credit and then top up when/if you want to use them again I believe

Nice thanks exactly what I'm after

Chorlie

culpepper wrote: »

maplins have some that already have credit on. They are '3' dongles . I think they had 2 different ones. You use them till they are empty of credit and then top up when/if you want to use them again I believe

I think they do have a time limit on them, range for 1 month to 12 months.

The only one that didn't have a time limit was the old Vodafone 1Gb, but they stopped doing them about a year ago.

I bought a sim only one off Ebay a couple of months ago.

ManAtHome

If your holiday involves aeroplanes or ferries (Isle of Wight excepted) things get more complicated - data roaming charges on all UK networks will make you wince (eg O2 is £3 per meg in Europe, £6 rest of world).

culpepper

Chorlie wrote: »

I think they do have a time limit on them, range for 1 month to 12 months.

The only one that didn't have a time limit was the old Vodafone 1Gb, but they stopped doing them about a year ago.

I bought a sim only one off Ebay a couple of months ago.

yes thats right ,the way I read it was, you can use them as often as you like until they are empty and then you must top up again. else they last for the time limit if you haven't used it all. I imagine if you only wanted it for a weekend or week away, the 1 month version would be adequate and could be topped up the next time you went away somewhere, again for a 1 month amount.

nottseagull

Chr15 wrote: »

I've bought my new notepad and now need a broadband dongle for the weekend to take away with me. In reality I wont use it a huge amount for internet so dont want to commit to a monthly fee, and was told a while ago about one that rolls over. trouble is after doing some searching I can't find one that does that they all seem to last 30 days.

Can anyone give me some advice please?

Most of the 30 day ones ARE rolling contracts. Get 3's one month notice contract (£15 for 5GB) and you get the dongle for £4.99.